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They both need todie.
Kor nods. “Yes, and we’re going to have to split up and make sure they don’t get anywhere near her.” He waits until I meet his gaze before he continues. “Do you want Royce or our father?”
My fangs ache as I make an easy choice with those options. “Zane’s mine.”
Chapter23
Issy
An hour earlier…
“Do you like it?” Zyran asks while I stare at the most beautiful collection of roses I’ve ever seen.
Like it?
I’m in shock.
Numbly, I nod as I venture farther onto the roof. The screams don’t seem so bad up here, as if the beauty of this place insulates against death.
There’s too much life for death to overtake it.
The intense aroma immerses me in floral perfection as I trail my fingers over silky petals. They’re all shades. Pinks, blood-reds, and even blues.
“I’ve only read about these,” I say as an excited tone enters my voice. I scamper to the blue roses and cup one of them as the texts I read flutter across my mind’s eye. “There was botany science introduced before and further developed after the Great Sacrifice, but I’ve still never seen a blue rose in person. This would have required genetic manipulation by adding the blue pigment delphinidin.”
Zyran chuckles. “You sure know how to seduce a man, Issy.”
I blush, more so because he used my nickname instead of calling me “baby.” Although, I enjoy when he does that, too.
I stare at the rare, spectacular roses and marvel at holding one in my hands. “This must have taken years to cultivate.”
“Tenyears,” Zyran clarifies. His touch runs along my wrist, then he sweeps his thumb over the petal I’m admiring. “It took some trial and error on my part. Then Kor converted one of the empty suites into a library so we could learn death magic and develop that side of ourselves. It’s something of an unspoken competition between us who is better read than the other. I found the potion books more interesting. Only the perfect roses are suitable for potions, apparently, so I learned a lot that way.”
I smile. “A library? I’d like to see that.”
And the fact that Zyran and Kornelius enjoy reading as a pastime—spell books, no less—seals the deal for me that fate knew what she was doing.
When I turn to Zyran, I would have kissed him.
But his glasses are still in the way. I could kiss him even while he wears them, but I prefer to first meet his gaze.
I reach up to take them off, but pain shoots up my wrist when he roughly grips my arm. “Never take off my glasses,” he warns, his tone going dangerously low.
I frown. “Why?”
His grip on me doesn’t loosen, but I don’t try to move away.
I want to see his eyes. There’s nothing he can tell me that would scare me off.
Does he have a wound he’s embarrassed about? A horrible scar? Or something else?
“My power,” he says. “Anyone who meets my gaze dies.”
My eyes widen.
Something else indeed.
“And anyone who hears my voice dies as well,” I tell him. “Yet here you are, listening to me. I’m not even wearing that collar Kor put on me.”
